This was fantastic. I thought it was mostly going to be about the race riot itself (a 1930s throw down with Canadian Nazis on one side and the Jewish and Italian communities on the other), but the riot itself only takes up one chapter of the book. The rest is about a group of friends living in the Jewish area of Toronto, and what their lives were like. One's dating an Italian and trying to go to college (where he has an antisemitic English teacher), a couple are training for a boxing match, the Italians are labour organising, everyone's dealing with the local Nazis and worrying about family in Europe. The older generation have seen this before, were in Ukraine, were in Berlin, wonder if coming to Canada was the right choice. There's an intense scene about a pogrom narrated by Bialik's "In the City of Slaughter."

The art is fairly simple, mostly line work, but gets the feel of the neighbourhoods and communities across really well. I did find it was too static for the actual riot part, and would've liked a style that conveyed the violence more immediately, but it's a small part of the book.

A great read, whether you're into Canadian history or not.